MovieChat Forums > The Limey (1999) Discussion > Am I dumb?

Am I dumb?

posted 19 years ago by gatemouthrb
11 replies | jump to latest

Can someone help me? I love the Limey but cannot understand the end of the film.

Why does Wilson NOT kill him? It is clear he has a catharsis about the recount of his daughter's death at the hands of Valantine, but what is Wilson's actual condition that causes him to abort his movie-long mission?

Sure, we hear Valentine talk about how Wilson's daughter grabbed the phone and threatened to call the cops, not unlike the way she did to Wilson in earlier days, when, of course, Wilson's daughter would be just kidding Wilson, and it was their affectionate father-daughter interplay.

So does Wilson consider that when Wilson's daughter pulled the same behavior on Valentine this time around that...

1) She was SERIOUS this time in calling the cops on Valentine, and the irony of Valentine NOT being a father figure that she would only kid at such an act solidifies to Wilson that this was somehow her daughter's fate, and that Valentine was just acting in his nature and, thus, no vengance needed to be taken?

OR

2) She was JOKING with Valentine. Wilson sees that Valentine never had that understanding that the father-daughter relationship had, misunderstands that it was a joke, and kills her. Wilson lets him live because the memory of their bond is what was important, not the revenge. This is more poetic, but awkward IMHO.

I love this film, but this has been bugging me. I am curious what y'all think. Did you know the answer just by viewing the ending?

[–] contact-258 19 years ago

I take option number one. I think she was serious. She didn't want her love to fall into the same trap her father had and that was why she was so deadly serious against his plan to engage in the crime.

It made complete sense to me that Wilson had empathy for Valentine at the end; that he just wanted to know why and that Valentine hadn't capriciously or cruelly killed his daughter.

[–] groundtwenty 19 years ago

I believe that Jenny loved Valentine and her reaction to call the cops was just a show, like she did with her father. Wilson realised that he was in part responsible for Jenny's death, since his past transgressions had caused his daughter to pick up this trait.

[–] gatemouthrb 19 years ago

<Sigh> It's my opinion that you both have equally good arguments for your analysis about the ending scene.

I just think that director Soderberg didn't intend for it to be an ambiguous ending, and yet it was. I loved the story that came before it, but the situation is too complicated and the outcome too definitive for the lead character for it to be left to a "let the viewers decide for themselves what's going on" kinda ending. I wished that the point that changed Wilson, whatever it was, was clinched better at the end.

[–] bojamo 19 years ago

Perhaps you could argue that Wilson's daughter was really going to call the cops on Valentine because she took the unprecedented step of visiting the warehouse and giving the manager a good ol'grilling trying to find out and maybe stop the illicit business that her chap was into.

"..I'll bleed you, real quiet, and leave you here. Got that?!"

[–] tommykins-1 19 years ago

I agree with groundtwenty that she was trying to get Valentine to stop his criminal activity by (falsely) threatening to call the cops as she did with her father when she was younger.

Wilson recognized this and he saw that he and Valentine weren't as much different (in his daughter's eyes) as he had thought. Valentine wasn't evil, just weak and amoral.

"Stupidity got us into this mess, why can't it get us out?" - Will Rogers

[–] dangerousbingo 19 years ago

She may or may not have been serious but i don't think that matters. More important to this fact was Stamp's story which he told the DEA guy about the time he 'could have done the screw in the park'. Was the ending like this story so when it came to kill Fonda 'it's not what he wanted any more'.
Also i thought that it was odd that she never told Fonda about her dad (after 5 years) but did tell woman actor friend.

[–] info-3508 13 years ago

I share this interpretation.

[–] thelastfaceyouwillsee 11 years ago

That is exactly how I saw it to.

"Remember, you have to make it home to get paid" (The Dogs of War)

[–] schumithecat 14 years ago

Two. The story Wilson tells about the prison guard (screw) fits into this (after being released, he saw a guard who'd tormented him feeding pigeons in a park and he thought about sneaking up behind him and choking him to death, but realized it wouldn't change anything about what happened in the past, etc.).

[–] ttaskmaster 13 years ago

As others have said: Wilson realises that Valentine was a combination father/love for Jenny and that she loved him the way she had loved her father - enough to call the cops and stop him from doing something that will take him away from her.

He also realises that her death was at least accidental and that Valentine had now suffered enough to understand how much damage he had done.

Stuff like that.

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[–] remembervhs 10 years ago

I think you guys have made some decent points but I got the feeling that Wilson sees himself as responsible for his daughter's death by the end of the movie. And so his decision not to kill Terry is a result of him acknowledging his guilt.